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All posts for the month February, 2012

Frank Viola is one of my favorite bloggers to read. As I scroll through, checking email, it never fails that one of Frank’s blog posts will appear. I will click on it and be immersed for the next few minutes reading.

I connected with Frank through Twitter and have been reading his blog ever since.

Recently, one of my favorite posts has been an interview with N.T. Wright.

Missional is a huge buzz word in the church today. A lot of people use the word without really knowing what it means.

FaithPoint Community Church is a missional church.

To be missional, you first must understand what missional means.

Missional is the way a church approaches people in culture.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23.

Paul had been rocked by Jesus. He had been changed and transformed. So have you.

Because you have been changed and transformed, you seek to change and transform. God has made us Agents of Reconciliation. God is in the process of reconciling all of creation back to Himself. He chooses to use us to make that change.

You are a missionary. At the moment of your salvation, you became one. You changed residences. Your permanent home is with Jesus. You are here on a very urgent assignment. To make disciples by engaging culture with the gospel and love of Jesus.

As a church, we can listen to sermons, sing songs, fellowship, go to conferences and retreats but if we do not engage culture with the gospel, we have failed to accomplish the main mission that Jesus gave us.

This is why you work where you work. This is why you shop where you shop. This is why you live where you live. This is why you would go to a coffee shop and you may not even drink coffee.

There are a few things that you need to know about being missional:

Being missional models the church in Acts. The apostles were missional. Paul was missional. The church was missional.

Being missional is about strong Bible based theology. The Bible guides us and is the foundation for why we are missional. We hold the Bible to be our highest authority. Some churches refuse to use the Bible in an effort to be both missional and relevant.

Being missional is about the gospel.

Being missional is about the church.

Being missional is about discipleship

Not all methodologies and strategies work. What works in a city in GA may not work in a city in Texas or a city in New York.

Like this:

Recently (thanks to Netflix and DVD) I have been watching the episodes of He-Man with my son, Bryson. He seems to only get excited when he sees Battle Cat. Anyway, back to our point….

Prince Adam is not a warrior until he pulls out his sword and is transformed into He-Man. What does that have to do with anything?

According to Ephesians 6, the only offensive weapon that a disciple has is a sword. Paul rightly defines the sword as the Word of God.

The Sword can be both offensive and defensive.

However, there is way much more to the Sword than some want to believe. Like the sword that is used by He-Man, our Sword is much more powerful.

The Sword we use transforms us. The longer you hold it, the more it transforms you. It is the only sword that the more you use it, the more it changes you.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

The Sword will conform you into the image of the one who spoke the Sword into existence. The longer you use the Sword, the more you will be conformed into the image of Jesus.

The Sword will teach you how to live a godly life. The Sword will correct you when you are wrong. The Sword will transform your mind.

The Sword will wreck, destroy, rip, cut, purge, attack what is in you that does not conform to the image of Jesus. It will slice right through the crap you hide behind and expose your very core. It will expose the sin in your life and then it will call you to fall to your knees before the righteous and Holy God and repent.

Holding this Sword is not always comfortable or easy. Sometimes it is difficult. Sometimes it is heavier than at other times.

Pick it up and you will begin to be changed.

Ultimately, you will look more like Jesus.

Amen.

Do you need a Bible reading plan? Are you unsure on even how to get started? Email me. I would be more than happy to help you out.

Lystra became a Roman colony in 6 BC. Later it became part of the Roman province of Galatia. Soon after, the Romans built a road that connected Lystra to Iconium.

Because of the heavy influences of Roman and Greek cultures, Lystra was a polytheistic society. The people did not believe in one God, they believed in many gods.

vs. 8 A man was born crippled. He had never walked. He does not know what it would be like to walk. All of his life, he has only seen other people walk.

vs. 9-10 Paul looked at the man intently. How is it that Paul saw his faith to be made well? The Holy Spirit gave Paul the ability to have such a level of discernment as to actually see the faith inside the man. It was like Paul was staring into the man’s soul.

vs. 11-12 Being that the people spoke Lycaonian, Paul and Barnabas had no idea what they were saying.

In Greek religious tradition, Hermes is the herald or the messenger. He was responsible for communication between the gods and humans. Zeus is the head of all the other gods. Zeus is known to carry lightening bolts and in times of anger and rage throw them. This is one of the incorrect views people have of the real God. God does not sit on a throne waiting for you to screw up so that he can hurl lightening bolts at you.

The people thought because a man was healed, that Paul and Barnabas were gods. Mythology says, Zeus and Hermes occasionally came down in human form.

vs. 13 Zeus was so popular as a god among the people that they had built a temple to worship him. The priest went out to the people and wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas and treat them as gods.